Why am I running after him?
Because… he’s upset. I saw just enough of his face. And I can’t let him go. Something happened and he’s -running-. Why can’t I let go? He doesn’t want to be my friend and he’s as good as engaged… Ugh, not the time for this, Midori, I tell myself.
Out the back gate (and not the main back gate, but the other one, that deliveries come to), and through the streets. Towards his home? But we’re heading closer to the river than there…
I can keep up for a while but I’d rather not. I lean down and pick up a pebble. Thankfully, one of my nephews (who is embarrassingly older than I am) decided that the best way to spend my last break home was teaching me how to throw.
And it’s a skill I’ve not lost, as the pebble goes through the head and hits Tsutomu-kun on the back of his head. “Will you -stop- now?” I call out.
Tsutomu:
I’m not really sure where to go. Not towards home, not towards that dojo, not towards the Akabeko nor Ueno park. I guess I ran towards the river. I hear someone chasing me but… I just go further and further away.
“OUCH” Something hits me in the head and I can’t help but stop as I trip over and roll down towards the riverbank.
Damn. I hit my head a few more time and land on my face. Heh fitting right? The unwanted son of both his parents, sprawled out here by the riverside. They said back in the old days they found a lot of dead people by the river or floating in them.
So my aim is good and accurate… but he trips and stumbles and I follow him down the riverbank.
“If you weren’t running so fast…” I mutter, as I kneel next to him, and get out my handkerchief to start to clean him up, wiping the dirt from his face. “I apologize, I didn’t mean for all -that- to happen. Just wanted you to slow down.” His hair is thick, so I can’t see if I made him bleed… I feel around, carefully, to feel… anything wet? I hope not.
Tsutomu:
She apologizes and starts feeling the back of my head. I push her hand away and sit up.
“I’m fine.” I wince a bit feeling something tighten at the back of my head. It’s probably nothing. “Didn’t you have some self-imposed imprisonment in the school? You’re not supposed to be here.”
I reach behind my head and feel a slight bump but nothing seems wet and even if it did, it’d probably heal on its own.
“I didn’t know you knew about the -other- back exit… but it looks like you got me to break out,” I sigh as he pushes my hand away. But I don’t miss the way he winces. Either my rock or the ones on the ground… one of them left a mark.
“Let me help. I made you fall down… and besides…” I pause, “it’s what a friend does?” I sink down a bit lower, and reach back into his hair. “I think you have more hair that I do,” I say, aware that I’m touching him again and that his hand is right there, somewhere in this thick forest as well. Don’t be weird about it, I tell myself. I feel one lump, but it’s dry… I lean forward to look at his eyes. I’ve spent enough time on boats seeing people getting whacked by booms to know a concussion…
but it looks like you got me to break out,”
“I didn’t want you breaking out. It had nothing to do with you.”
But she insist on touching my head and makes a comment about how I have more hair than she does. Then she looks into my eyes and I ended up holding my breath for a reason. She’s pretty. I blink away that -odd- thought.
“Maybe it will all fall out someday. Done staring?”
I sigh, “You want to be a good girl right? Go back before anyone see’s you.”
It had nothing to do with you
I frown. “Of course not, Tsutomu-kun. It did have to do with -you-.” His face is a bit splotchy. He couldn’t have been… no, it’s probably from when he fell. He’s stronger than that, right. “You seemed upset, I saw Yagi-san… I was worried you got some bad news.”
I’m supposed to be checking to see if his pupils are dilated. But instead… while his hair is like his mother’s, his eyes… are not like either. They’re very, very dark… unique to him. And overall… I sit back, blushing a bit (WHY). “Ummm… I think you just have some bumps and scrapes. Nothing worse.”
I smile at bit, as he talks about his hair. “Well, at least you didn’t have it shaved off at your last birthday.”
He tells me to go and I actually sit this time. “I’m fine, now that I’m out. And thanks for the swiss rolls – they helped. I had another run-in with that guard yesterday…” I shudder. I ate more of the cakes than I should have after that…. “But for you, today, you can talk about it. Or not. Or we can just watch the river. This one moves well – not like my ocean – but it’s good for me to see water.” As much as my mother said that I was a land child, I really do miss home sometimes. Nothing quite smells like the sea.
“You seemed upset, I saw Yagi-san… I was worried you got some bad news.”
I’m quiet for a long moment. “I guess… I was upset she wanted me to go to Aizu and she was saying that my… that he wasn’t him anymore. Wouldn’t I know my own… Father? Even if I saw him dead in my dreams, he was right there alive even if he doesn’t care about my mother and I much. That was him.”
She talks about shaving my head and I wouldn’t mind. “My brother lives in Aizu with a high ranking former Karo. He lives his life much like samurai of the old days. But his head wouldn’t be shaved, it would draw the gov’t’s ire.”
“You should report that guy who’s been harassing you.” For a moment I wonder if my father can help her but I doubt he’d do it. “Maybe when Takimi sensei gets back.”
I look at the river. I’ve always been drawn to it ever since I was young. We’d go fishing… back then in Akashi. “I like rivers. There’s no seas in Aizu or in Akashi.” I glance back at her looking out the water.
OOC will reply in AM
He’s quiet for a long time before speaking. What sort of nonsense was Yagi-san telling him? No wonder he got upset… “you didn’t tell her about those dreams, did you?” I don’t think he would, and even still… what does that even mean, not him anymore?
I smile as he speaks of his brother. “I remember Tsuyoshi-kun. He was always so funny and polite… and you always took good care of him. And if you want to shave you head, go to a place like Sakata,” I grin a little. “We’re in the middle of nowhere, the government planning maps don’t have us getting a train for another twenty five years, so I don’t think they’d care about hair.”
My smile drops as we talk about the guard. “He doesn’t think that girls should be educated, and that they’ll only make trouble. He accused me of going out on assignments – he said that girls did that to help their families.” I frown – it sounded seedy, but I don’t quite get it. “And my family doesn’t need me to go to work…. or go out with old men, whatever that means, if that’s whatever an ‘assignment’ is.” I hope he didn’t mean Fujita-san… he’s got a stern face but I don’t think he’s one of those really old fathers.
I watch the river with him, and wave back at a small flat-bottomed cargo boat that floats by as the oarman waves at us. “We have the Mogami in Sakata – it flows from the mountains to the sea – it’s such a cold river! It comes to us all the way from Mount Azuma, which isn’t far from Aizu. I don’t know if you can see it from there, with the mountains all around.” It’s funny to think that we were just down a river from each other…
Tsutomu:
“you didn’t tell her about those dreams, did you?”
“She asked and seemed…” I look for the words, “Desperate. Kept going on and on about that he died and what I saw in Aizu.” I don’t care about his death. Why would I? That man who tries to make me think the worst of my mother. A mother who never wanted us in the first place. “I don’t want to go back to Aizu, at least not to prove any of them right.”
She talks about going to Sakata. “I’d go anywhere right now just to get away from all of them.” But it is funny if it’s true that the Mogami river at Sakata, comes from the Azuma.
Then she talks about the guard, the one that’s given her trouble. “Assignments?” I look at her and then it finally dawned on me, what that guard thinks… Just like what men like my father used to do back then, what my mother said he did – play with women.
Suddenly I grip her hand tightly and stand up, “We’re taking you back -early-. Avoid that Niita at all cost and write your mother. Tell her about this and then tell Takimi-san and whichever teacher you trust in the school.”
I look at her seriously, “Don’t go out anymore. If you have to, go with a friend – Tsurumi even – just be with -somebody-. And I’ll make sure Makoto sends you sweets. Understand?”
“What could have made her so desperate to say such things?” It’s been a while since she had cute little Ai-chan, but with the kidnapping, maybe she’s… off-kilter. One of my sisters-in-law had problems after a baby, she cried all the time… but whatever why, to say that to her stepson?
He talks about getting away… “You’d like our sea in Sakata – it’s not as wild as the Pacific, I’m told, but to see the endless sea and sky…” I smile. “I like this place too, and this river,” I say, motioning at the one in front of us.
Assignments?
The look on his face…. “What does that even mean?” I ask, worried. I certainly should know what I’m being accused of! With that look, it must be something terrible…
He holds my hand -tight- and it’s a strange feeling. That someone’s taking care of me… my heart beats a little faster. “Yamaji-sensei saw the end of it, but I don’t think she heard… I’ll tell her.” But hopefully she doesn’t believe whatever it is he said.
“I’ll stay in. If you and Makoto-chan…. well, I don’t -need- sweets…” I smile, a bit bashful that he knows my ‘weakness’, “but they make life better. And maybe sometimes you can bring them?” Blushing at -that- I turn my head and pull a note out of my pocket. “Here… you don’t need to spend the money your mother needs buying me cake because our school employs a jerk.”
“What could have made her so desperate to say such things?”
“It’s him. He has that effect on people, like my mother.” I can’t really tell her of course what kind of father he is and what he truly does for a living.
“Yamaji-sensei saw the end of it, but I don’t think she heard… I’ll tell her.”
“Tell her you feel unsafe around him. That he’s harassing you and saying inappropriate things to you.” Because using words such as assignments when he really means something else -is- harassment.
And maybe sometimes you can bring them?”
“I guess I can.” I let her hand go and scratch the back of my head. “Or you can just meet me sometimes at the rooftop. No one should bother us there, well except Kai-kun.”
“Here… you don’t need to spend the money your mother needs buying me cake because our school employs a jerk.”
Hesitating, I go ahead and take the note. I’m only relying on a meager allowance after all. “I’ll walk you back. I want to make sure that guy doesn’t see you or at least doesn’t harass you.”
(OOC: you may close.)
Tsutomu-kun talks about his father… it’s strange, because the way Fujita-sensei talked about him… he was either the shining captain, the hero of Aizu who was “gifted” with her hand, or… well, even then I thought it was strange that a teacher complained to her child students about her marriage.
He agrees to meet me sometimes, on the rooftop. Which can only mean of the main upper school building, it’s the only one with a flat roof but Makoto-chan said that sometimes he sleeps on the roof at their house! I smile. “If Kai-kun is coming, his appetite will outstrip the limits of my allowance.” Well, maybe. Mother sends too much.
The walk back is uneventful – I can only hope that the guard is on one of his breaks and not bothering another girl… within whatever he was accusing me of. Maybe Yamaji-sensei will explain it to me, when I tell her. She’ll usually explain things to me. But I’m not sure if I’ll write my mother. She’s opening a new factory next month and thinks that Futaba is -perfect-…
We part at the door of the building that houses my room. I thought that maybe we didn’t get spotted by Tsurumi-chan…. but the dirty look I get and slammed door tell me that she knows something.
Oh well. Off to my homework, and those cakes.
(OOC – close)